What is E-21?
When we're young, the world is a brighter place full of endless opportunities and mysteries waiting to be discovered. We're naturally curious, always asking questions. E-21 is here to nurture that curiosity in students like you. It's a step towards your future to help you understand the incredible potential of having an entrepreneurial mindset, something that will help you succeed in today's fast-changing 21st-century world. Think of E-21 as your key to unlocking your limitless potential!
Vision
To empower the next generation with an entrepreneurial mindset, cultivating innovation, adaptability, and resilience for a future filled with opportunities
Mission
To provide students with the knowledge, skills, to foster curiosity, creativity, and the ability to turn ideas into action, equipping students to not only navigate change but also drive it through educational resources, mentorship, and a supportive community.
Why participate?
Prize money and Prototyping fund of INR 1 Lakh+
Mentoring and upskilling from industry experts and students from IITM
Merchandise like T-shirts and other goodies
Exclusive one-on-one interaction opportunity with young and established startup founders
Fun and interactive workshops
Prestigious opportunity to present their prototype in front of various stakeholders in IITM
Who can participate?
All students from classes 6th to 12th can participate in the event. E21 will be
conducted in two tracks:
Track-1: 6th-8th grade
Track-2: 9th-12th grade
All students are invited to register and participate.
Phases
Phase 1: National Innovation Entrepreneurship Olympiad
A nationwide olympiad meant to initiate the student's journey into the entrepreneurial world. This olympiad will help shortlisting students for the next phase.
Phase 2: Ideation Express
Educational and interactive sessions for all the selected students to develop a
greater grasp about entrepreneurship and to better understand the beginning of the
journey.
During this phase, the teams are supposed to submit ideas that they
will work upon if selected for the next phase. The submissions will be open for the
entire duration of Phase 2.
Phase 3: MarketMinds Forum
In-depth market research sessions, including user research, Industry Analysis, and competitor analysis. Expert-guided exploration of market dynamics to validate and refine ideas.
Phase 4: Build zone
Personal mentoring sessions as well as proper guidance for the selected teams to help make their ideas a reality. This phase will allow the selected teams to develop their ideas into final products through proper guidance.
Phase 5: Product Showcase
The finale of E21 involves various stakeholders as well as startup founders as students present their final product to them. A perfect opportunity for students to display their entrepreneurial skills on a larger level. All teams will be trained such that they are able to present their product as well as the ideation behind it through a detailed pitch-deck.
E-21 Flashback
Voices of Experience
"It was an honour to present our idea here at E-Summit. All the workshops were very interesting. Mentors were very helpful and guided us to solve the problems we were facing."
TEAM ABACUS Abacus Montessori School, Chennai"Thank you for giving us this opportunity to present our startup idea. It feels that we can really make a difference. It is motivating to see eminent people in industry appreciating our work."
HELPING HANDS Gateway International School, Padur"We learnt fundamentals of entrepreneurship and how one does market research, business plan and sells the product. We are actually very happy that at this age we got a chance to present our prototype in IIT Madras."
BANGTAN Gateway International School Neelangarai"All lectures were very informative and it gave us wider view of how things in entrepreneurial world work. Additionally, mentors were really helpful."
TEAM SAURAS Gateway The Complete School, Chennai"Through E-21, E-Cell has given us great exposure to entrepreneurial world and we also got an opportunity to interact with some well known startup founders."
SAFEZONE Gateway The Complete School, Chennai"I was new to entrepreneurship when I participated. All thanks to the E-Cell team for providing me this platform to build upon new skills and learn about entrepreneurship."
KOOPA BIN S.B.O.A School and Junior College, ChennaiOur Partners
CodeTantra
Platform Partner for NIEO
On My Own Technology
Knowledge and Outreach Partner
Unified Council
Outreach Partner
Bluelearn
Platform SponsorFAQs
Do we have to register as a team?
Yes. The event will be conducted in teams of 2-4 students. For the olympiad, team's total score is the average score of all team members.
Can teams be formed among students from different schools?
Yes. Cross School teams are allowed.
Should all the team members be from the same class?
No, the members can be from different standards.
How many members can be there in a team?
A team can have minimum 2 and maximum 4 members, all from the same category.
Is there any registration fee?
No, there is no kind of registration fees in any round of E-21.
How many teams will be selected for Phase 2/ Phase 3?
The number of selections will be based on the number of participants for Phase 1 and the quality of submissions for Phase 2.
Will the event be conducted online or offline?
NIEO as well as the workshops and mentoring sessions will be conducted in online mode. However, the finale of E21 will be conducted offline in IIT Madras campus.
Will the event or any of its sessions clash with school/ board exams?
No. All sessions have been planned keeping in mind the dates for school exams. All efforts will be made to keep the dates convenient for the students.
For queries, contact:
events_ecell@smail.iitm.ac.in